By Curt Schleier
It’s that time of year again: spirited joy, joyous spirits and family. What could be better? Or funnier? In this the last episode of 2007, the folks at 30 ROCK celebrate the Holidays with their annual Ludachristmas office party. What are the festivities like? Well Frank Rossitano (Judah Friedlander) apologizes in advance for anything he might do and forgives everyone who will leave him lying in his own swill as night turns to dawn. Intern Cerie (Katrina Bowden) wants to know if Frank is going to play horny Santa again like he did last year when she sat in his lap. And some say we’ve lost the true meaning of the holiday. I say bah humbug, next round is on me.
Jack Donaghy (Alex Baldwin) had plans to drive to Vermont to visit his Congressional cutie, but despite his best efforts and a major hurricane, his mom Colleen (Elaine Strich) manages to make it up from Florida. Mom doesn’t have a positive attitude. She berates her son about his office, his ambitions and his life generally.
So Jack is totally unprepared for Liz Lemon’s family, dad Dick (Buck Henry), mom Margaret (Anita Gillette) and her brother Mitch (Andy Richter), who a tragic teenage skiing accident keeps frozen in 1985. Even considering the season, they are the overly-nicest people in the world. Your “family is strange,” Jack tells Liz. “What did (your mother) mean when she said you were a beautiful genius. Was she taunting you?”
When the senior Lemons visit Jack in his office they appear to be the anti-Colleens, complimenting him on his office, declaring how proud his mother must be of him. Donaghy is unconvinced of their sincerity. “Why don’t you cut to the chase and tell me what you want from me?” But the Lemons don’t want anything.
Colleen sees what’s happening and tells her son “I’ll bet you think they’re more nurturing than I am.”
Mother, he replies, “there are terrorist cells more nurturing than you are.”
“Give me 10 minutes with the Lemons and I’ll have them tearing at each other like drag queens at a wig sale.”
The Donaghys and Lemons have dinner together, and at first Colleen’s efforts seemed doomed failure. “See, mother,” Jack says, “not all species eat their young.”
Meanwhile, Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer) is upset at the lack of genuine Christmas spirit in the office so he shanghais everyone into a meeting with a friendly priest. Even Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) is there, but of course he has little choice. He got drunk on the way to a court hearing and now wears an ankle bracelet that somehow records his intake of those aforementioned joyous spirits.
Soon Jordan, overcome with emotion and feeling the spirited joy of Christmas and a couple of shots of the joyous spirits he snuck in, leads everyone outside to chop down to Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Well all’ well that ends well. Cooler heads prevail. The tree is saved and it turns out that even the Lemons have nasty skeletons in their closet.
There won’t be another new episode at least until the second week of January. I’m going through withdrawal already. On the plus side, it gibes you 30 ROCK newbies and wannabies an opportunity to catch up on old episodes and become 30 ROCK veterans. Old episodes are available
here.